Moderna COVID-19 Vaccination News A vaccination with the Moderna (MRNA) COVID-19 produced neutralizing titers against all key emerging variants tested, including B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, first identified in the UK and the Republic of South Africa, respectively. The study showed no significant impact on neutralizing titers against the B.1.1.7 variant relative to prior variants. A six-fold reduction in neutralizing titers was observed with the B.1.351 variant …

Exelixis: FDA Approval for Cabometyx in Combination with Opdivo  Exelixis (EXEL) announced that the United States FDA has approved CABOMETYX (cabozantinib) in combination with OPDIVO® (nivolumab) as a first-line treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). RCC is among the 10 most frequently diagnosed cancers in the U.S. annually. Dr. Toni Choueiri, Director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and The …

Regenxbio Regenxbio (RGNX) announced that it is selling a portion of its royalty rights from the net sales of Zolgensma® by Novartis to entities managed by Healthcare Royalty Management, LLC (HCR) for $200 million. This transaction provides immediate, non-dilutive capital to Regenxbio in order continue the development of its gene therapy pipeline products and complete its internal manufacturing capabilities. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC served …

Gilead Sciences Company, Kite Pharma, News Kite Pharma, a Gilead Company (GILD), announced that the European Commission has granted conditional marketing authorization for Tecartus™ (autologous, anti-CD19-transduced CD3+ cells; formerly KTE-X19). Tecartus is a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy for adult patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy including a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor. Conditional …

Regenxbio Dosed First Patient with RGX-111 for MPS I Regenxbio (RGNX) has dosed the first patient with RGX-111 in the Phase I/II trial for the treatment of Mucopolysaccharidosis Type I (MPS I). About Regenxbio Product RGX-111 RGX-111 is an investigational one-time gene therapy designed to deliver the α-l-iduronidase (IDUA) gene directly to the central nervous system (CNS) using the NAV AAV9 vector. RGX-111 is a …

Moderna Has Successful COVID-19 Vaccine Results and News Moderna’s Phase 3 study met statistical criteria with a vaccine efficacy of 94.5%. Moderna intends to submit for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) with U.S. FDA in the coming weeks and expects the EUA to be based on the final analysis of 151 cases and a median follow-up of more than 2 months. Moderna (MRNA) announced that …

Moderna Inc COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Moderna Inc (MRNA) announced the completion of the case accrual for the first interim analysis of Phase 3 COVE study of mRNA-1273, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The firm announced a significant increase in the rate of case identification across sites in the last week. As a result, the Company expects the first interim analysis will include substantially more than 53 …

Pfizer and BioNTech Good News Regarding COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) announced that their mRNA-based vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) has demonstrated evidence of efficacy against COVID-19 in participants without prior evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 infection; this is based on the first interim efficacy analysis conducted on November 8, 2020 by an external, independent Data Monitoring Committee …

Important Quarterly Results Announcements Monday, November 2, 2020 at 8:PM ET IVERIC bio IVERIC bio’s (ISEE) management team will host a live conference call and webcast following the announcement to discuss the Company’s financial results and provide a general business update. To participate in this conference call please dial 866-575-6539 (USA) or 323-794-2575 (International) using passcode 6339331. A live, listen-only, audio webcast of the conference …

News from AstraZeneca About COVID-19 Vaccine, AZD1222 From AstraZeneca (AZN) we learned that its COVID-19 vaccine, AZD1222, which is being developed in collaboration with Oxford University, has produced a similar immune response in older and younger adults. A spokesman from the firm stated that the results have further built the body of evidence for the safety and immunogenicity of AZD1222. On October 23, 2020 AstraZeneca’s …

Gilead Sciences Veklury® (Remdesivir) was Approved by the US FDA The U.S. FDA approved Gilead Sciences (GILD) antiviral drug Veklury® (remdesivir) for COVID-19 infected patients who require hospitalization. Veklury halts the SARS-CoV-2 replication that causes COVID-19. Veklury is the first and only approved COVID-19 treatment (not vaccine) in the U.S.. The news announced that the drug is widely available in hospitals across the country. The …

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Dosed First Patients with ION541 for ALS Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) announced that the first patients have been dosed with ION541 (also known as BIIB105) – an investigational antisense medicine being developed as a potential therapy to treat most forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), regardless of family history. This is another milestone in the continuing progress of Ionis’ ambitious program to develop novel …

COVID-19 Vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna The three products whose trials were halted are not vaccines but, rather, antibodies that treat patients who already have COVID-19. With regard to the COVID-19 vaccines we believe we have encouraging news from Pfizer/BioNTech’s and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines. The Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine  Pfizer (PFE) Chairman and CEO, Albert Bourla, stated that the mRNA vaccine developed together with BioNTech (BNTX) will …

Enlivex Therapeutics Positive Results for Severe and Critical COVID-19 Patients Enlivex Therapeutics (ENLV) – a clinical-stage immunotherapy company, reported positive results of an investigator-initiated clinical trial of the firm’s product AllocetraTM in severe/critical COVID-19 patients. The clinical trial included as few as five COVID-19 patients, three of whom were in severe condition, and two in critical condition. The good news is that all five patients …

Gilead Sciences News Is Not Just Gossip Real news, not just gossip, is spreading today about Gilead Sciences (GILD) nearing a deal to acquire the biotech firm Immunomedics (IMMU) for $20 billion. Immunomedics current market value is around $10 billion which means that Gilead is buying it at double its value. The deal could be announced on Monday, if not sooner, if the talks go …

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline Have COVID-19 Vaccines Advancing in Clinical Trial Sanofi (SNY) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) started Phase 1/2 clinical trial for their adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine candidate developed by both firms uses the same recombinant protein-based technology as one of Sanofi’s seasonal influenza vaccines, with GSK’s established pandemic adjuvant technology. The Phase 1/2 clinical trial is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled trial. It is …

CDC Is Asking States to Prepare for COVID-19 Vaccines The U.S. Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked the 50 states’ public health officials to be ready to distribute potential COVID-19 vaccines to high-risk people, healthcare workers and others as soon as late October, as showed in a document yesterday. The New York Times (NYT) has also reported today that the CDC has …

The US FDA Awards Fast Track Designation to Paxalisib for Glioblastoma  Kazia Therapeutics Ltd (KZIA) – an Australian oncology biotechnology company, announced that the United States FDA has granted Fast Track Designation (FTD) to Kazia’s paxalisib for glioblastoma, the most aggressive primary brain cancer. The FTD has been granted for the treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma with unmethylated O6-Methylguaninemethyl transferase (MGMT) promotor status who have completed initial …

Inovio Inovio’s COVID-19 Vaccine INO-4800 Accomplished the Following: Durable antibody and T cell responses in rhesus macaques for 4 months. Long-term protection in non-human primates challenged with SARS-CoV-2 virus 13     weeks from vaccination. No other vaccine has demonstrated it. Reduced viral loads and faster viral clearance in macaques’ lungs and nasal passages as a result of a good Memory T and B cell …

TCR2 Therapeutics Announcement TCR2 Therapeutics (TCRR) – a clinical-stage immunotherapy company with a pipeline of novel T cell therapies for cancer, announced positive interim data from the first five patients treated in the Phase 1 portion of the TC-210 Phase 1/2 clinical trial for mesothelin-expressing solid tumors. All five patients have demonstrated tumor regression including two RECIST unconfirmed partial responses (one of which remains subject to independent central …